OPEC Emergency Meeting Not Beneficial: Iranian Oil Minister

Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh underlined that asking for an emergency meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) over low oil prices before the members’ consensus will have an adverse effect.

“I have repeatedly announced that holding emergency meeting before the OPEC members’ consensus is detrimental to the (oil) market and will lead to lower prices,” Zanganeh told reporters on the sidelines of a gathering on oil and media in Tehran on Monday night.

He went on to say that the oil ministers of OPEC member states take their decisions in their respective countries before participating in the emergency meeting.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Zanganeh pointed to the oil price predicted in the next year budget, saying that the proposed price is 40 dollars per barrel and the realization of the prediction depends on the market’s volatility.

Oil prices have nearly halved since the summer of 2014. The fall in prices is blamed on global supply glut and weak demand.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would typically cut production to support prices but some members have been falling in line with Saudi Arabia to produce at full throttle, sending prices into a tailspin.

While Iran’s economy has faced problems due to falling prices of crude, efforts have been made to decrease dependence on oil incomes.

Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei has repeatedly called for formulation of plans to cut dependence on oil revenues and govern the country on the basis of domestic capabilities instead of natural resources.